People making a difference

(photo: Soldiers celebrate making a fire in Pech Valley, Afghanistan.)


Thanksgiving has a way of making you feel thankful.  As I'm able to be at home eating leftover turkey, watching football, I think about soldiers freezing up in the mountains and stuck out on outposts from Kunar to Kandahar, so far from home, looking out in the night, wondering about how their families are, wishing they could be there.

I've often wondered what were the best non-profits giving back to troops.  


Here's a couple that are giving big:
1.  Dan Wallrath was just featured on CNN heroes.  He's a Texas builder who since 2005 has provided free houses to troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.  http://www.babasupport.org/

"Wallrath was inspired to start this program when he was asked to go to a home to help remodel it to accommodate an injured war veteran. He decided to use all the talent and knowledge he had from his lifetime career in construction to help veterans."  Read the article on his work.

2.  Bob Woodruff was a prominent ABC journalist critically wounded by an IED in Iraq in 2006.  Woodruff was in a medically induced coma for 36 days.  He's established a foundation for traumatic brain injuries.
Here's some info about his foundation: ReMIND.org. "The vision of the Bob Woodruff Foundation is to provide resources and support to injured service members, veterans and their families -- especially those who have sustained the Hidden Injuries of War.

(Photo: Woodruff with his children, days after he awoke from his coma.)

--More than 35,000 service members have been physically wounded.

--It is estimated that more than 320,000 have sustained traumatic brain injuries.

--More than 300,000 U.S. soldiers have psychological wounds. 

3.  Any Soldier  Sergeant Brain Horn from LaPlata, Maryland was an Infantry Soldier with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kirkuk, Iraq when he started the idea of AnySoldier to help distribute packages that came to him with "Attn: Any Soldier" in the address to soldiers who were not getting mail.

This site is very cool.  It allows you to click on a soldier stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan and hear where they are, what they're doing and what they need specifically, from socks to spiced beef jerky.

4. Books for Soldiers http://www.BooksforSoldiers.com/.   I've seen a lot of guys stuck in the wilds with not electricity wishing they at least had a good book.  I'm not talking about the moldy boxes full of romance and bad thrillers they normally get.  Guys are looking for quality up-to-date non-fiction and classic literature.

5. Soldiers' Angels Plenty of platoons read bundles of letters from grade school kids assigned to write to troops.  The soldiers are usually mildly amused, especially with they Crayola drawings.  But this charity allows people to directly adopt a soldier, and requires that one commit to writing a personal letter a week and sending a care package a month.  This makes a difference for one soldier.